On a chilly fall evening in November, I interviewed Skidmore's Student Government Association (SGA) new President, Geraldine Santoso ‘22, succeeding Issy Mejia ‘23, about her involvement on campus and her hopes and goals in her new position. She stands as the first BIPOC woman to be elected into the role of President. Santoso, a dedicated double major in Anthropology and International Affairs and minor in Asian Studies, holds many positions on campus, such as being a member of clubs and working in different academic departments.
The Skidmore News would like to disclose that Santoso works as co-Features editor for the news where she pitches article ideas and writes her own articles. In addition, she also participates extensively in the Nihongo Japanese and Language and Culture Club where she collaborates with professors to organize events for students to learn more about Japanese culture—a primary area of interest in Santoso’s academic research. She supports international students and events of the International Student Union, ISU. As for her jobs, she works as an educator at the Tang Teaching Museum, and she devotes time to working with professors in the Anthropology and International Affairs departments.
Santoso was part of the Senate for two semesters prior to her ascendancy to the Presidential role. In her interview with Skidmore News, she spoke about her interest in continuing to be part of SGA and to work with others in discussing and addressing the concerns on campus. She also wants to transform SGA into a welcoming space for more productive dialogue and discourse. Thus, she was moved to run as SGA President in order to be part of the process of enacting positive, necessary change. In witnessing the issues on campus and in SGA, she wants to play an impactful role in altering the environments.
“I think something that fueled me is seeing change; I want to be part of an organization that is more collaborative,” Santoso says. She acutely noticed the reactionary nature of students on campus, but she wants to push the need for action in place of passivity: “A lot of students at Skidmore are more reactionary—only when a problem arises, do people actually start talking about it. Their action is a response to something bad, rather than actually taking initiative [first] to address the problem.” Santoso plans to address the growing concerns on campus, such as issues of race, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), and distrust between students and admin, for students on campus and future students. “I hope to leave Skidmore a better place than [what it was] when I moved here,” Santoso shares.
Santoso is the first Asian woman elected to the role, and she acknowledges her privilege of being able to enact change and speak on issues of marginalized Asian women. “I was privileged to have social, cultural, and intellectual capital and to move between those spheres. I acknowledge that not a lot of people can do that,” Santoso says. She plans to use her connections to voice the concerns of the student body. In another vital point, she details her ability to understand the experiences of Asian women, but not of people of other races and identities, for whom she plans to create space to speak and share their thoughts: “I like to create space, and not to take up too much space—I want to let other people speak before I do,” Santoso stresses, “Everyone has a lot to say.”
In stepping into this position, she views SGA’s role as the campus voice to foster collaboration and fix internal and external issues. In our conversation, I posed questions about her plans and goals for the remainder of this school year. She outlined two crucial goals: to improve relationships between administration and the students and to allow space for productive and respectful discourse.
In her first and main point, she expresses the need for more transparency between the administration and the student body, but she also presses for more reform through collaboration. “My main goal is to have people in the Senate work to reform rather than hold a revolution. Working in extremes is bad. As much as I love the discourse of a revolution, the solution is not to tear everything down—we can’t start from nothing. Reform is the best way to make change, and to work collaboratively with the administration,” Santoso states. However, she also perceives the necessity of questioning administration and holding them accountable. In her four weeks of being President, she has witnessed the administration being receptive to students’ inputs.
Santoso acknowledges the intimidation of some students in speaking with members of administration, which she hopes to bridge and to mend. She wants to foster more communication between the two for change to occur. She stresses collaboration: “You have to work together to solve issues,” Santoso emphasizes.
In her second goal, she wants to foster productive but not offensive or harmful discourse. “If anyone is racist, if anyone is misogynist, or if anyone hurts people by what they actively say—that kind of dialogue is not welcome,” Santoso clarifies. This semester, she strives to encourage more ideas and fruitful debates on the treatment of BIPOC students on campus and DEI issues because of the previous meetings where members were condemned for their differing opinions on certain topics. Santoso wants to combat the repetition of the same ideas and the lack of a safe space for differing views. “SGA shouldn’t be an echo-chamber. Discourse is good,” Santoso shares. She wants to make SGA more realistic for those who hold an interest in politics through allowing others to feel comfortable in sharing their opinions and adding to the discussion in productive manners. “I want SGA to be a space for people to have difficult conversations without people attacking—not racism or white supremacy—but space to talk about their opinions without fear of judgement,” Santoso states. “People should learn from each other.”
In closing our conversation, Santoso highlights the need for more discourse in SGA. As President, she will strive to do her part in addressing the concerns on campus and shaping SGA into a more welcoming and active organization.
We want to acknowledge that Geraldine Santoso is part of the Skidmore News team, but she was not involved in the editing or writing process of this piece. Traditionally, the Features editor writes a piece introducing the SGA President for the school year.